Sadness
in Final Thoughts
Well, it’s been a long 6 months using this blog and
a long 3 months using my twitter. I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I
did but I will truly miss connecting with the class as much as I have been over
the course time of this class.
Choosing a favorite assignment is truly a difficult
thing. Although, I do have a few favorites such as: Newspaper blackout poetry,
Twitter fiction & The Buried Life project. I have different reasons for
loving each one. Newspaper blackout poetry was an amazing thing. The beginning
was hard because all you were doing was searching for words in an article,
which is the equivalent of searching for a needle in a haystack. But once the
words began to come together and you began to blackout others, the article
transformed into something completely original, which was the part I loved.
Twitter fiction, now that’s something I thought I would dislike from the
beginning but it sure surprised me. I love writing stories but the challenge
was that you had to do it over twitter which only gives you 140 characters at a
time. On top of that I had never liked twitter and saw no purpose in it at all.
When the stories began to come together, my mind began to change and I began to
love the challenge of it. Some of my stories came out beautifully and I truly
was happy. The TBL project was amazing all on its own. It was such a personal
project and I loved being able to dig down deep within myself and try to find
all my hearts desires. It for sure was a process but I was happy with the
result. I also now have a Bucket list to change and finish for the rest of my
life!
To be honest, I don’t think I truly hated any of our
assignments. Sure there we’re some that I didn’t think I would like at all, but
I began to love every single one in their own way while I was completing them.
It’s crazy to think of how many ways there are to be creative and this class
brought out many of them.
Friday reading I’ve always looked forward to. I’m an
avid reader; I read probably 100 books per year (if you count rereading stories
as well). I read all the time at home and during any spare time I can find. It’s
always been something I’ve enjoyed so being able to read for class truly made
me happy. It gives teenagers a break on Fridays to not have to do work and it
generally put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.
I think the only part that became a hassle
throughout the course was the Reading reflections. I generally read to escape
reality and if it’s truly a book I love, it pulls me completely into the story
as if I’m there. The problem with doing these reflections was we had to analyze
the book, ask questions, make comments and make predictions. It took me away
from the story and I found I didn’t enjoy reading as much when I had to keep
leaving the story to analyze it. It took away from the joy of reading.
The writing reader’s notebook started out pretty
well, but when you have a blog to write in all of your thoughts, why writes it
in a notebook? At the beginning of the year it had a purpose in getting us
going on the course, but soon after that it just got put to the side. It became
something solely used for notes in class and that was it. In the end it just
became useless which is kind of sad. It proves that we use technology for
writing way more than we use an actual paper and pen.
I LOVED the blogging. Blogging is something
teenagers generally use; twitter, tumblr, Facebook, an actual blog, etc. So the
fact that we got to use it for a class was very appealing. I loved being able
to personalize it and make it represent me. Sure you had to post assignments on
it, but you also got to do personal additions, which had to be my favorite
part. You could write a story, a poem, put up your favorite song, anything that
shows who you are. It was kind of liberating in its own way. Watching your hits
go up and seeing that people actually took the time to go to your blog and read
what you read or listen to your favorite song made me happy. Blogging was for
sure an awesome idea for keeping track of assignments. It gave something to the
teacher and the students. I think I will be keeping my blog even after the
course is finished.
Twitter was a surprise. I’ve never been interested
in twitter at all. I actually thought the purpose of twitter was actually it
was actually pretty pointless since we have facebook. It’s snuck up on me
though. It makes it seem as if it’s easier to communicate with your peers. You
can retweet what they said or tweet at them to give comments, suggestions, or
just to talk. It can be frustrating that you can only do 140 characters at a
time but surprisingly you get used to it. I encourage people to use it for
class. You can communicate with your teacher and peers very quickly.
The integration of technology into this course was a
phenomenal idea. These days, everyone depends on technology. You can always
have access to a computer; phones are glued to people’s hands, the internet is
growing immensely every day, etc. So why not embrace it. You will never be able
to stop teenagers or even kids from texting in class. They will always find a
way to hide it or get around it. So why not use those phones to further their
education in the class? It’s something that is inevitable for the future. It
was also very intelligent to use programs that teenagers love to use already;
twitter, blogging, photo editing sites, etc. Students will be more motivated to
do the work with familiar programs, especially if they use them quite often
just for fun.
I learnt so much about myself as a creator in
general. For my writing, I learnt that it can never be forced. I can’t just sit
down and make myself write something, it tends to turn out terrible. The
inspiration has to be there for me to create something magnificent. It’s truly
as if the story writes itself. I also learnt that my writing will always
include love; whether it’s heartbreak or true love. My obsession of romance has
yet to die. Also, I can write short stories, I’m generally not a short story
writer, I love writing long stories but knowing I can do short is an
accomplishment. As a reader, I can never dissect a book. For me to be able to
enjoy the book, I let it take me to where ever it takes place, and I live the
story with the characters. I can’t leave that place and try to ask questions
and make predictions or it ruins the story for me. It also takes away from the
story. Just enjoy the reading. As a creator, I love to watch transformations. I
love being able to take one thing and change it to create another. Even with
pictures; I love to edit them to make the colors brighter, to change the view
of the photo, to make people see the subject as I see it. It’s the same thing
with the Newspaper blackout poetry; you take a newspaper article and change it
into something completely your own, everything about the article has changed. The
transformations are amazing and for sure my new favorite thing to see. This
course has challenged me and helped me begin making my own creations. I’m so
glad I took it.
Mrs. McLauchlan, thank you so much for making this
course so unique. I’ve never enjoyed a class more than this. The technology
aspect really was an awesome idea and you really should convince more teachers
to incorporate it into their classes. I don’t think I have anything to
criticize you for because I didn’t have any problems in your class at all. Maybe
don’t continue with the notebooks because aside from notes, we haven’t opened
them since the beginning of the year. I’m sure it’s not easy taking care of
more than 25 blogs at a time but it’s such an awesome part of the class and I
encourage you to keep doing them. I loved every single project so feel free to
keep those as well (: Even if I am the only one who enjoyed them.
My advice for future Creative writing students is to
just be open-minded. Some of these assignments you may think that you will hate
but once you actually do them, you may learn to love them. I thought I wouldn’t
like twitter at all and now I’m on it at least once a day. There are so many
amazing things that happen in this class and so much creativity. Just stay open-minded
to the assignments, to others comments and critiques and to your own
creativity. If you do all of this, I’m sure you will love this class as much as
I did.
